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Suggestions as to Four Semi-National 

and Necessary Improvements 

to the Capital City. 



LOUIS P. SHOEMAKER. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

,1UDD A DETWBILKR, PRINTERS 

1899 




Class LUli. 



Book . S 5 ^ 



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Suggestions as to Four Semi-National 

and Necessary Improvements 

to the Capital City. 



Now that we are in a position to recur to peaceful pursuits, 
and while our national Treasury is in a condition to justify 
any reasonable expenditure for necessary Federal undertak- 
ings, it becomes tlie duty of Congress to pursue a more liberal 
policy, generally speaking, and provision should at once 
be made for the establishment of four necessary improve- 
ments, which are national advantages to the Capital City. 
It is important that the}^ should be urged, not merely 
because they will adorn, beautify, and make it more health- 
ful, but because they are, as stated, in the strict sense of the 
word necessities. 

First. The acquisition of land for the proposed street plan 
and the actual extension — that is, the grading and regulat- 
ing of some of the more important and leading thorough- 
fares. 

Second. The improvement of Rock Creek park. 

Third. The construction of at least two substantial bridges 
over the Potomac river, connecting Washington city and 
also West Washington with Virginia. 

Fourtli. The dredging of the Eastern branch and the fill- 
ing and reclamation of the several hundred acres of low land 
adjacent thereto. 

Considering these four suggestions seriatim, we are re- 
minded that Congress passed what is known as the street- 
extension act without appropriating any money from the 
United States Treasury to pay for damages incurred by rea- 
son of the execution thereof and without authorizing that 
payment should be made from funds of the District of 
Columbia. 



Consequently, many of our people who own land beyond 
the limits of the cit}^ have been for six years involved in 
litigation ; they have had the title to their holdings detri- 
mentally affected, not only by such litigation, but by the 
filing of numerous maps which have had the effect of virtu- 
ally appropriating from thirty to fifty per cent, of the land 
for street purposes, and this proceeding has operated as a 
destruction of private property rights to a great extent. 
It has prevented many of these ownei's from building, from 
selling or from borrowing money upon their property, and 
no sort of compensation has been made, nor is any proposed 
to be made, generally speaking, notwithstanding the fact 
that all tliis hardship has been incurred by the people. 

Surely Congress should realize, at this late day, the injur)' 
which has been perpetrated upon the land-owners of this 
District through its agents, because at least six years of 
time have been spent in harassing the people by employing 
counsel, filing maps, causing litigation extending from 
the lowest to the highest courts, and by refusing to pay 
the awards of juries approvedby the court, and consequently 
we have not been able to secure the actual extension of 
even the necessary and most important streets. It is now 
time to realize that this proposed and necessary under- 
taking is not only national in its character, but a real 
necessity to the Capital City, and that the cost thereof should 
be paid from the national Treasury. This attempt to con- 
fiscate private property by authority of the Coiigress of 
the United States should be discontinued. 

Considering the second suggestion, we find that Congress, on 
the 27th of September, 1890, as will be ascertained from the 
following (piotation of section 1 of the act, authorized the 
establishment of a public park of national proportions, for 
the benefit of the people of the United States. 



"An act autliorizint^ the establisliing of a public park in the District of 
Columbia," approved September 27, 1S90. 

" Section 1. Be it oiaded by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That a tract of land lying on both sides of Rock creek, be- 
ginning at Klingle Ford bridge, and running northwardly, 
following the course of said creek, * * * ^g the com- 
missioner designated in this act may select, shall be secured, 
as hereinafter set out, and be perpetually dedicated and set 
apart as a public park or i)leasure ground for the benefit and 
enjoyment of the people of the United States, to be known 
by the name of Rock C^reek park." (See 26 Stat., 492.) 

And also the following extract, to show how the land 
shall be paid for, which reads as follows : 

" To pay the expense of inquiry, survey, assessment, cost 
of lands taken and all other expenses incidental thereto, the 
sura of $1,200,000 is appropriated out of any money in the 
Treasury not otherwise approi:)riated, one-half of which, as 
well as one-half of any sum annually appropriated and ex- 
pended for the maintenance and improvement of the park, 
is made a charge upon the revenues of the District of Co- 
lumbia. 

" It is made the further duty of the commission, when 
they have ascertained the amount required to be paid for the 
land and for expenses, to assess the same upon the lands, 
lots, and blocks situated in said District specially benefited 
by reason of the location and improvement of said park, in 
proportion to such benefits to said property ; and it is pro- 
vided that if the commission shall find that the benefits are 
not equal to the cost and expenses of the land obtained for 
the park, they shall assess each tract specially benefited to 
the extent of the benefit thereto. If the proceeds of the 
assessment exceed the cost of the park, the excess is to be 
used in its improvement, if such excess shall not exceed the 
amount of ten thousand dollars." 



This park is no more a local improvement than the new 
Congressional Library or other pul)lic buildings and grounds 
in the District, as evidenced by the following quotation from 
section 3 of said })ark act : 

* * * " Upon depositing the ai)praised value of the 
land in court to the credit of such owner or owners, respect- 
ively, the fee-simple shall in like manner be vested in the 
United States." 

Without being satisfied with this injustice legislatively 
imposed upon the few land-owners of the District by directly 
taking from the revenues thereof six hundred tJiousand dol- 
lars for a national improvement to the Capital City and legis- 
latively declared to be of a Federal character for tlie benefit 
of all the j>cople of the United States, Congress sought in the 
same act to tax the people of this District with the other half 
of the cost thereof by special assessment. 

Fortunateh^ for these owners real estate has been de 
pressed and no special benefits could be found to exist by 
reason of the establishment of said park, and no assessment 
for the other half could be made. 

But the intention of Congress has been expressed and its 
desire has been exerted to establish here a national 
improvement, legislatively declared to be Federal, and re- 
quire the few land-owners of the District of Columbia to pay 
the entire cost of not onh' the acquisition of the land, but the 
expense which will have to be incurred in its improvement. 

What authority can possibly exist for the establishment 
either here or elsewhere by Congress of a legislatively de- 
clared national undertaking or improvement and the impo- 
sition of its cost upon a few thousand tax-])ayers to the 
exclusion of all others. What constitutional provision can 
be found to authorize it? What fundamental principle of 
taxation exists to sustain it ? 

If this is a constitutional and legal thing to do, then the 
few peoi)le who hapi)en to own land in the District of 



C<»luinl>iii can bo taxed to bear other and more extensive 
burdens of the nation, to the exclusion of all tlie otlier tax- 
payers of the country. Tliis sum of $600,000 should be 
refmided to the District of Columbia. 

It is a well-recognized fact that this proceeding, which is 
so intensely unjust, as well as the result thereof, is a thing 
of the past and a matter of history. It is mentioned here, 
however, with no idle or unintentional purpose, but with 
two objects in view : 

A. To inform the tax-payers, many of whom are not 
aware of the extent to which Congress will go and 
has gone in the exercise of its constitutional power, to 
legislate exclusively for the District of Columbia, and to 
remind the land-owners of the helpless and neglected, if not 
dangerous, condition to which they are subjected. It is be- 
lieved that if the Commissioners of the District of Columbia — 
that is, at least two of them — were selected by and responsi- 
ble to the tax-payers, and had access to the floor of the House 
and Senate, that such provisions as can now be found in the 
Rock Creek Park act and the street-extension act would not 
be upon the statute books, both of which have been during 
the last eight years not only burdensome, but of no practical 
benefit to the people of this community. 

B. The obnoxious features of this particular legislation are 
again brought to the attention of the public, with the hojje 
that Congress will at least and at this late day appropriate 
a sufiicient sum to improve this National Park. It 
is growing up largely as a wilderness; it is a dis- 
advantage in its present condition and a damage to abut- 
ting property ; relieved, somewhat, however, but only to a 
very small extent, by the capable efforts of our Engineer 
Commissioner, Captain Beach, who has judiciously used the 
chain-gang. 

The District is losing the interest on six hundred 
thousand dollars, and has been deprived of the revenue 



6 

wliicli would have accrued from taxable real estate included 
ill said park, and no citizen of this city has, since its estab- 
lishment in 1890, derived aiw benefit whatever from the 
purchase, and will not until it is improved. 

In support of the third suggestion it will be urged that at 
least two substantial bridges over the Potomac river should 
be constructed by the United States. 

What a national disgrace it seems to be. What a discredit 
and disadvantage it is to the National Capital, and what a 
risk of imminent danger it may be, to have a large United 
States fort, a Government reservation, a national cemetery, 
and the great State of ^^irginia on one side, and the Capital 
City of the nation on the other, and, practically speaking, 
no safe or suitable way of crossing the Potomac river which 
separates them. 

One of the existing bridges is an old and dilapidated 
wooden structure, monopolized by two railroads and con- 
trolled by a great corporation, which has sufficient influence 
with the National Legislature to perpetuate the existence 
thereof, notwithstanding its unsuitable character and the 
damage which both public and private property has sustained 
and will continue to sustain by reason of its location and 
manner of construction. It has seriously affected the chan- 
nel of the river in front of Washington. It annually and 
freqnentl}'' during the winter season and spring causes 
the collection of great embankments of ice which prevent 
the flow of water, thereby placing the city in imminent 
danger from the effect of high water. Why should this cor- 
poration be pcrmittod by Congress, which has exclusive 
jurisdiction here and exercises it in such an arbitrary and 
unfair manner when dealing with the tax-payers, as illus- 
trated by the park case and the street-extension case, allow 
this corporation, for its own benefit, gain, and profit, to preju- 
dice the public and private interests of the National Capital ? 

The other bridge has been for years seriously defective. 
Its piers have been and are now in a dangerous condition. 



and formerly the people of the District and the State of Vir- 
ginia were required to pay toll. 

This nuisance has, however, been abated, but the old struc- 
ture remains and is inadequate, dangerous, and unsuitable 
certainly for public, if not for private, purposes. It can be 
confidently stated that this bridge, although connecting the 
Capital with Fort Myer, a governmental reservation, designed 
for the protection of the National Capital, is not safe to be 
used in an emergency by the cavalry or artillery, which we 
are entitled to assume may be called into public service. 

Considering thefourtli improvement urged herein with refer- 
ence to the Eastern branch, we are reminded that the entire 
eastern section of the city as well as that of the District 
are disastrously affected by the discreditable condition in 
which this stream has been allowed by Congress to remain 
since the establishment of the Capital of the United States in 
Washington, more than one hundred years ago. It was 
once a navigable stream as far as Bladensburg, and now 
there is no perceptible channel for any part of the distance 
beyond the navy yard, showing conclusively that the extent 
of exposed and disease-breeding territory is becoming more 
extensive every year. 

It affects more particularly the part of the city to which I 
have referred, but the evil influences arising constantly there- 
from spread over the entire city, many parts of which are 
considerably less than one hundred feet above the level of 
this stream. 

Why shall Congress permit such a nuisance to continue 
to exist at the Capital of the nation when it can be so com- 
pletely abated? How can Congress be justified in taxing 
the people of this country to the extent of perhaps millions 
to enable our military authorities to cause Havana and other 
parts of Cuba to be placed in a sanitary condition — territory 
where we have no vested rights and over which we only 
claim temporary jurisdiction, sustained by military author- 
ity? 



8 

If Congress is justified in doing this for the benefit of other 
peoples and other countries, why shall it continue to permit 
the Capital City of this nation to remain with inadequate 
sewer facilities, the densely populated suburbs and immediate 
environments thereof, practically speaking, with surface 
drainage and Avithout adequate water supply ? Wh}- will 
Congress permit the Eastern branch and hundreds of acres 
of low land on the borders thereof to remain unreclaimed and 
continue to be a menace by spreading its malarial influences 
over the entire Capital City, endangering, as declared l)y our 
physicians and board of health, not only the President of 
the United States, but the members of his Cabinet, the mem- 
bers of Congress, the members of the Supreme Court, and 
the thousands of Government employes who are required to 
reside here ? 

Which city should demand our attention first for neces- 
sities? Which city is entitled to the expenditure of the 
people's mone)'', that is being wrong! it from them in time of 
peace tlirough the medium of burdensome taxation ? Should 
we say Washington or Havana? 

Louis P. ShoeiMaker. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 









014 310 486 2» 



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